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Dementia with Lewy bodies

  • About
  • About
Overview
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  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Huntington's disease
  • Vascular dementia
  • Dementia with Lewy bodies
  • Frontotemporal dementia
  • Normal pressure hydrocephalus
  • Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (prion disease)
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Overview
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  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Huntington's disease
  • Vascular dementia
  • Dementia with Lewy bodies
  • Frontotemporal dementia
  • Normal pressure hydrocephalus
  • Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (prion disease)
  • Corticobasal degeneration
  • Mild cognitive impairment
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  • Physical examination
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  • Brain scans
  • Laboratory tests
  • Psychiatric evaluation
  • Presymptomatic testing
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Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is one of the most common types of progressive dementia. DLB usually occurs sporadically, in people with no known family history of the disease. However, rare familial cases have occasionally been reported.

In DLB, cells die in the brain's cortex, or outer layer, and in a part of the mid-brain called the substantia nigra. Many of the remaining nerve cells in the substantia nigra contain abnormal structures called Lewy bodies that are the hallmark of the disease. Lewy bodies may also appear in the brain's cortex, or outer layer. Lewy bodies contain a protein called alpha-synuclein that has been linked to Parkinson's disease and several other disorders. Researchers, who sometimes refer to these disorders collectively as "synucleinopathies," do not yet know why this protein accumulates inside nerve cells in DLB.

The symptoms of DLB overlap with Alzheimer's disease in many ways, and may include memory impairment, poor judgment, and confusion. However, DLB typically also includes visual hallucinations, parkinsonian symptoms, such as a shuffling gait, rigidity, and stooped posture, and day-to-day fluctuations in alertness and thinking within the day. Patients with DLB live an average of 7 years after symptoms begin.

There is no cure for DLB, and treatments are aimed at controlling the parkinsonian and psychiatric symptoms of the disorder. Patients sometimes respond dramatically to treatment with antiparkinsonian drugs and/or cholinesterase inhibitors, such as those used for Alzheimer's disease. Some studies indicate that neuroleptic drugs, such as clozapine and olanzapine, also can reduce the psychiatric symptoms of this disease. But neuroleptic drugs may cause severe adverse reactions, so other therapies should be tried first and patients using these drugs should be closely monitored.

Lewy bodies are often found in the brains of people with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. These findings suggest that either DLB is related to these other causes of dementia or that the diseases sometimes coexist in the same person.

Learn more about dementia with Lewy bodies.

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Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are research studies that evaluate a new medical approach, device, drug, or other treatment. As a Stanford Health Care patient, you may have access to the latest, advanced clinical trials.

Open trials refer to studies currently accepting participants. Closed trials are not currently enrolling, but may open in the future.

Closed Trials
Raloxifene for Women With Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia
A Study of Crenezumab Versus Placebo to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety in Participants With Prodromal to Mild Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia
The Effect of Memantine on Brain Structure and Chemistry in Alzheimer's Disease Patients Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia
221AD302 Phase 3 Study of Aducanumab (BIIB037) in Early Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia
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